Pablo Zabaleta has admitted that Manchester City were "really poor" during their 4-2 derby defeat to Manchester United.

The Blues saw their faint Premier League title hopes all but ended at Old Trafford on Sunday as they were comfortably beaten by their local rivals.

Despite claiming that City were the better side early on in the match, Zabaleta concedes that they crumbled once United got into their rhythm.

"It was a disappointing afternoon for us," he told Sky Sports News. "Sometimes it's hard to understand why we can play really well for 20 minutes and when they equalised we were a different team.

"We didn't have any reaction and the second half was also really poor. That team can play much better but the reality is we are not playing very well. We're far from our best. There's six games to go. We know it's going to be hard to win the league and now we have to concentrate on the top four."

The result has left City in fourth place in the table, 12 points adrift of leaders Chelsea.